Email Security 2010

Emails are becoming a rampant means of IT threat. The number and means of email threats are increasing and therefore, they are causing a lot of worry for organizations about being complacent with their security. This paper looks at a number of researches to understand issues associated with email security. Citing a paper by Osterman Research, this paper suggests how organizations that do not address email security are likely to face legal liabilities, financial risks, the potential for not being in compliance with statutory and legal requirements and other risks. The paper suggests that this year is therefore likely to be one where the importance of employing effective, integrated Web, email and data security will take priority. According to Websense security experts, email will once again be used as a top vector for malicious attacks. Websense Security Labs says that the second half of 2009 saw that emails were extensively being used to spread malware as email attachments and links. Websense detected that 81% of emails contained a malicious link and more than 85% of emails were spam. Emails compromise security not only when they contain malicious attachments. It has been observed that emails come with increasingly sophisticated blended attacks that are difficult to trace and monitor. This paper discusses the Aurora attack where emails containing links to malicious code were sent to Google, Adobe, and about 30 other companies with the misuse of an Internet Explorer vulnerability.